13th May

[chenrezig]

1515 Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, were officially married at Greenwich.

1568 In the Battle of Langside, the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, were defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, who was her half-brother.

1607 Riots took place in Northamptonshire and other Midland counties of England in protest at the widespread enclosure of common land.

1607 Captain John Smith landed on the coast of Virginia and began the first permanent English settlement in the New World, calling it Jamestown.

1660 Diarist Samuel Pepys witnessed the removal of the Irish Harp from the Union Flag, on the Restoration of Charles II. The cross of St Patrick was not added until 1801.

1787 The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England. They arrived in January 1788. 'On This Day' in 1987 several sailing ships left Portsmouth, re-enacting the first voyage.

1828 The birth of Josephine (Elizabeth) Butler, English social reformer who campaigned for women’s rights in the 1860s and 1870s, promoting education for women and the Married Women’s Property Act.

1842 Arthur Sullivan, English composer and collaborator with W.S. Gilbert, was born.

1868 A team of Aboriginal cricketers arrived in England to play 47 matches. They preceded a white Australian team by more than ten years.

1907 The birth of novelist Daphne du Maurier (Lady Browning), granddaughter of novelist George Browning and best known for her novel Rebecca.

1912 The Royal Flying Corps, (now known as the Royal Air Force), was established.

1949 Britain’s first jet bomber, the Canberra, was given its first test flight at Warton in Lancashire and was flown by Wing Cdr. RP Beaumont.

1957 The BBC began its regular television programmes for schools.

1995 A British mother (Alison Hargreaves, aged 33) became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

1977 England captain Tony Greig was fired for recruiting players to Australian Kerry Packer's rival World XI team in what was seen as a 'breach of trust'.

2009 Health minister Phil Hope agreed to repay £41,709 in second home allowances following further media revelations about MPs expenses.

2013 Former cabinet minister Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce were released from prison and electronically tagged, having served a quarter of their eight month jail sentences for perverting the course of justice. The ex-energy secretary had asked Pryce to take his speeding points after his BMW car was caught by a speed camera on the M11 between Stansted Airport and London in March 2003.

[JaneJ]

8 months to sail to Australia. You'd be stir crazy by the time you got there!

Really interesting as ever Liz thank you.

xxx

va++++

[annie]

tha22222

[wendy]